beorn's Favorites

Genistidium is the shrub at center in front of the legume tree Pithecellobium.

Brushpea is a native legume shrub of low elevation settings in the Chihuahuan Desert of Brewster County, Texas, and adjacent Coahuila, Mexico. Trifoliolate vegetative leaves transition to unifoliolate leaves in the inflorescence. The flowers are mostly solitary in the axils of unifoliolate and sometimes trifoliolate leaves. They are small, less than 1 cm in any dimension, and the petals are pale yellow at anthesis. The fruit or pod averages about 4-5 mm wide and about 2 cm long.

Went to Welder Wildlife Refuge to look for a few plants and other things (with permission from director). Tried to find a few historic plant populations, but those areas were dominated with non-native grasses. Oh well. Still had some fun finding other critters and plants! :)

Right before the Texas Academy of Sciences meeting, I ran into legendary Texas botanist, Bill Carr! He was doing a little survey for the Tobusch fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus brevihamatus subsp. tobuschii) around Kimble County. He told me of this location, and I was lucky enough to find a few individuals! Location greatly obscured due to conservation concerns:
http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/tobusch/

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Near the gate in the eastern oak-juniper habitat we found a tree I first found in 2013. (See it as a small sapling here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/274203) Wow, what a tree it has grown into! And I've never seen it flowering before!